The history of the difficult fate of Russian Masons and their connection with the February Revolution.
Freemasonry has never been something static and unchanging. Having arisen in one form, at different times in different countries, it was constantly changing. For this reason, any attempt to give Freemasonry one specific definition is inevitably doomed to failure.
Freemasonry originated in England in the early 18th century and was conceived as a secret philosophical association, whose members were to engage in self-improvement and work for the good of society. As such, it did not last long and very soon began to degenerate into a political trend. This process can be traced in the example of the Russian Empire.
The main sources of the article:
- Brachev V. S. "Freemasons in Power";
- Zakharov V. Yu. "The main stages of the development of Freemasonry in Russia, its relationship with constitutionalism";
- Nikolaevsky B. I. "Russian Masons and the Revolution";
- Serkov A. I. “History of Russian Freemasonry. 1845-1945 ".
Who are Masons and how to understand them
The period before the 18th century in the history of Freemasonry is regarded as prehistoric. He is associated with the brotherhoods of real masons known in England since the 14th century. Hence, all the symbols of the Masons - the square, the hammer, the compasses, and so on, as well as the three traditional Masonic degrees: master, journeyman and apprentice. Workrooms were called lodges for masons.
Engraving depicting Masonic symbols.
Promotional video:
In the 16-17th centuries, many of the brotherhoods of free masons began to disintegrate, and gradually they began to accept people who had nothing to do with construction. The first non-mason to become a Freemason was Elias Ashmole, who was accepted into the fraternity in 1646. From the second half of the 17th century, Masonic lodges lost their professional character.
In 1717, in London, four "new model" Masonic lodges merged to form the United Grand Lodge of England. This is how Freemasonry was formed in its classical understanding. Fifteen years later, the British brought Freemasonry to France, which eventually became the second center of freemasonry in Europe.
United Great Lodge of England, London.
Initially, Freemasonry was conceived as a moral and ethical trend. According to the fundamental Masonic document - the Book of Charters by James Anderson, published in 1723 in England - every Mason is obliged to believe in God and strive for moral self-improvement, building his own spiritual temple brick by brick. This is an allusion to the forefathers-masons, who also erected temples, but real ones.
Their activities did not end with philosophizing. Classical Freemasonry is also based on the cult of labor for the good of society: Masonic lodges should engage in educational activities and charity.
The Masons recognized God, but only as the creator of the universe. Human life, in their opinion, does not depend on God - each person creates his own destiny. Because of this, Masons often clashed with the Catholic Church.
Classical Freemasonry was conceived as an apolitical movement, disputes on political topics in the lodges were prohibited. However, it remained as such only in its homeland - in England, where by the time of the emergence of Freemasonry there already existed a "package" of civil rights and freedoms, as well as a constitutional system.
At the same time, absolutist regimes operated in most countries of continental Europe, so there Masonic organizations began to gradually degenerate into political organizations - France is a vivid example of this. The same tendency is typical for the Freemasons of the Russian Empire, who adopted the experience of foreign comrades.
The emergence and development of Freemasonry in Russia
In 1698, the future Russian emperor Peter the First returned from the Grand Embassy to Europe. According to English legend, upon arrival, the inspired Pyotr Alekseevich began to actively introduce European customs in his homeland, starting with the establishment of Freemasonry in Russia. He himself, according to legend, was accepted into the ranks of free masons in England.
Peter the First in Holland during the Great Embassy.
There is no documentary evidence of this beautiful version. The first real mentions of the existence of Freemasonry in Russia date back to 1731, when the Great London Lodge sent master John Phillips to Russia to establish Freemasonry here.
But the "Russian" lodges organized by Phillips can hardly be called such, since only foreigners entered them. Russian nobles began to join Masonic lodges only in the next decade.
Empress Elizaveta Petrovna, who ruled from 1741 to 1762, although she treated the Masons negatively, did not persecute them. There is no exact information about the number of lodges in Russia during this period, as well as about specific examples of the influence of Freemasons on politics.
Peter the Third, who replaced Elizabeth on the imperial throne, apparently was himself a Freemason and patronized his "brothers": he presented a whole house to the St. Petersburg Lodge of Constancy. Nevertheless, many Freemasons disliked Peter and participated in organizing a coup d'etat against him (among them, for example, the then favorite of Catherine II, Count Grigory Orlov).
Thus, the features of the politicization of Russian Freemasonry can be traced as early as the second half of the 18th century during the reign of Peter III.
During the reign of Catherine the Great, which lasted from 1762 to 1796, Russian Freemasonry flourished. Lodges of very different systems (English, German, French) arose with great speed, enticing adepts from each other and conflicting with each other.
The meetings of the English lodges, organized by the influential freemason Ivan Perfilievich Elagin in the 1760s and 1770s, looked more like solemn feasts or balls, where everyone got drunk and "obscene roared songs with dissenting yells."
Elagin himself admitted that he joined the Order at a young age, driven solely by curiosity and the desire "through the brotherhood to get patrons and friends among the nobles."
Grand Master of the Provincial Grand Lodge in St. Petersburg Ivan Perfilievich Elagin. Engraving from the publication of the Grand Duke Nikolai Mikhailovich "Russian portraits of the 18th - 19th centuries"
The second pillar of Russian Freemasonry in the Catherine era was Nikolai Ivanovich Novikov, the leader of the Moscow Freemasons of the 1780s. First of all, Novikov is known as the publisher of satirical magazines ridiculing the vices of autocracy and serfdom.
Novikov Freemasonry was the complete opposite of Elaginsky. His lodges were engaged in charity work, organized teachers' seminaries, maintained schools, opened libraries. That is, they followed the precepts of classical English Freemasonry of the early 18th century.
Catherine the Great was skeptical about such amateur performances. In 1780, she published her work "The Secret of the Anti-Ridiculous Society," which ridiculed all Masonic rites and rituals. Six years later, three comedies came out from the pen of the Empress - "The Deceiver", "The Seduced" and "The Siberian Shaman", in which the Masons were exposed in an unfavorable light.
The leader of the Moscow Masons Nikolai Ivanovich Novikov. Painting by Dmitry Grigorievich Levitsky.
The persecution of free masons in Russia ended on August 1, 1792, when by the decree of Catherine II, Freemasonry in Russia was actually prohibited. Novikov and his closest associates ended up in prison.
There were several reasons for Catherine's harsh attitude toward Freemasonry:
- The Moscow Masons, headed by Novikov, actively contacted the heir to the throne, Pavel Petrovich, the son of Catherine and also her main enemy. The Empress had every reason to suspect that the Masons were preparing a coup d'etat;
- Catherine had a personal dislike for the oppositionist Novikov because of his ironic attacks on the imperial power;
- The Great French Revolution was in full swing, in which Freemasons and members of other secret societies took an active part. The Empress was afraid that the same might befall Russia.
Alexander the First, who ruled in the first quarter of the 19th century, at first treated the Freemasons favorably, so they began to get out of the underground. In 1817-1822, Pushkin, Chaadaev and Griboyedov became Masons.
In 1822, after a short "thaw", Alexander the First again banned Freemasonry in Russia due to the growing opposition among them. His decision was strongly influenced by the revolutionary events in Italy in the 1820s: the emperor knew that the cells of the Italian Carbonari (revolutionaries) were built on the model of the Masonic lodges.
At the end of the 18th - the first quarter of the 19th century, Russian Freemasonry, although it retained its traditional features (ritual, engaging in educational activities, charity, and so on), was strongly politicized, moving away from the precepts of the forefathers.
A new generation of Russian masons
After the ban, Freemasonry in Russia fell into hibernation. Individual lodges continued to exist, but deep underground, with the last known ritual initiation dating back to 1850. It seemed that the case of Novikov and his predecessors had been forgotten forever.
At the same time, Western Freemasonry lived and changed, gradually becoming more and more involved in the political struggle. The lodges of France were especially successful in this: during the French Revolution of 1848, Freemasons openly demonstrated support for the radicals.
In the 1870s, the leaders of the Grand Orient of France, the central Masonic organization in France, removed from their constitution the references to the Great Architect of the Universe. Seven years later, atheists began to be admitted to the Masonic lodges. All of this went against the classical model of Freemasonry, which was based on the recognition of God as the creator of the universe.
Later, the ban on discussing political issues was lifted in the French lodges - another slap in the face to traditional Freemasonry. In response to such impudence, the United Grand Lodge of England - the foremother of world free masonry - announced that the Great East of France could no longer be considered a truly Masonic organization.
In the late 19th - early 20th centuries, Russian intellectuals, persecuted in their homeland, increasingly began to join the lodges of the Grand East of France. In their political views, many of them were liberals and advocated the establishment of a constitutional monarchy in Russia.
Inventor Pavel Nikolaevich Yablochkov and Professor Maxim Maksimovich Kovalevsky became the faces of Russian Freemasonry abroad. Yablochkov in 1887 opened the first Russian émigré Freemason Lodge "Cosmos" in Paris. Kovalevsky, 14 years later, organized on its basis the Russian Higher School of Social Sciences, which existed until 1904.
The goal of the school was to increase the political literacy of its students, as well as to train new Masonic cadres for a quick "landing" in Russia - Kovalevsky did not intend to stay abroad for a long time. The period from 1887 to 1906 became preparatory for Russian masons. At this time, they were gaining experience in political work from French like-minded people, in order to later transfer it to Russian soil.
One of the leaders of Russian Freemasonry at the beginning of the 20th century, Maxim Maksimovich Kovalevsky. Photo by Karl Bulla.
In connection with the growth of the revolution, on October 17, 1905, Nicholas II issued the Highest Manifesto, which, among other things, proclaimed the right to the existence of assemblies and unions in Russia. This freed the hands of the Freemasons, and already in January of the following year, Kovalevsky received permission from the leaders of the Great East of France to create Masonic lodges in Russia.
In 1906, Freemasonry in the Russian Empire awoke after a long sleep. The reference point for him was Western European free masonry, which was based on the idea of active participation in political life and almost completely ignored traditional Masonic values.
Although formally by 1906 the Freemasons had every right to exist, each new lodge was deeply conspiratorial. Going underground became a requirement of common sense - the government, which had not yet recovered from the revolutionary 1905, saw conspirators everywhere. This concerned the Masons especially: on the example of France, the emperor knew very well what they could be capable of.
The active recruitment of new members to the lodge began only by December 1906, after the dissolution of the first State Duma. At the same time, the main idea was formed, which formed the basis of the Russian Masonic organization.
The Masonic Order in Russia was to become a non-partisan platform for progressive opposition forces. At meetings, its members would discuss pressing political issues and find common ground, forgetting about their party affiliation.
The leaders of Russian Freemasonry wanted to unite the divided left camp, which needed a single organization. Members of Masonic lodges in Russia belonged to a wide variety of opposition parties, ranging from constitutional democrats to socialists.
In 1910, the ranks of Russian Masons, which were already small in number (the number of free masons in 1906-1910 in Russia did not exceed 100 people), thinned even more. This was due to the desire of the leaders of Russian Freemasonry to get rid of the protectorate of France and exist separately.
By 1912, an independent Russian Masonic association was finally formed and was named the Great East of the peoples of Russia. Its first leader was the Russian politician Nikolai Vissarionovich Nekrasov. The qualitatively new lodges were no different from the old ones. They had less and less in common with Freemasonry.
Nikolai Vissarionovich Nekrasov, First Secretary General of the Supreme Council of the Great East of the Peoples of Russia. Photo by Karl Fischer.
The Masonic degree system was practically eliminated - only two of them remained in the Great East of the peoples of Russia: a student and a master. The system of moral improvement and spiritual development, characteristic of classical Masons, faded into the background - it was extremely rare to talk about philosophy and religion at the sessions of the lodges, all the time they were occupied with endless conversations about high politics.
The process of admission to Freemasonry has also undergone changes. The ritual remained, but in an extremely simplified form: the candidate passed a short written survey, after which (if the members of the lodge were satisfied with the results of the survey) he was blindfolded and taken to the common room. It was attended by all the "brothers" who announced the good news to the newcomer, kissing him in turn.
Aprons, a pair of compasses with a square, other traditional Masonic paraphernalia - all this is a thing of the past, the ritual side of the Russian Masons was nullified. The same could be traced in Western European Freemasonry, especially in French, but the “new” Russians went much further in this regard than their foreign colleagues.
Lodges Russian masons called ordinary private apartments. Meetings were held in them, which also had nothing to do with the usual Freemasonry: 7-10 people in an easy and relaxed atmosphere communicated on social and political topics. Unless they called each other "brothers" and turned to "you", but otherwise - an ordinary underground political circle.
The sessions of the lodges were held about once a week. They began with the announcement of political news and messages about the inner life of those parties whose members were present at the meeting. This was followed by an exchange of views on pressing issues. Masons, who were also deputies of the State Duma, discussed the Duma agenda and tried to come to a compromise.
It all ended with conversations, since the lodge did not make any decisions and did not oblige its members to anything. Collective discussion and mutual persuasion were all that limited the work of the Masonic lodges.
In Russian Freemasonry at the beginning of the 20th century, only the name remained of Freemasonry. Educational activity among the people was replaced by complete inaction, and talk about philosophy and religion was replaced by endless demagogy on political topics.
Gradually becoming politicized since the reign of Peter III, at the beginning of the last century, Russian Freemasonry finally turned into an underground political organization that had nothing in common with classical free masonry.
Is the February Revolution a Masonic conspiracy?
Conversations about politics naturally led to exclamations about the need to rouse the people for revolution or to make a political coup. Especially often, tactical issues were raised on the eve and with the outbreak of the First World War in the Supreme Council of the Great East of the peoples of Russia, not to mention the provincial lodges.
Many members of the Council, with undisguised contempt for the monarch's despotic power, in fact feared "a senseless and merciless Russian revolt." A member of the Supreme Council from 1912 to 1917, Menshevik Alexander Halpern argued that "there was no political conspiracy as a deliberately set goal in our work program."
The vanguard of Russian Freemasonry was made up of leftist liberals from the Cadets and Progressives, who, in principle, did not welcome revolutionary methods of struggle. Particularly radical Socialist Freemasons held the opposite opinion, but in response they heard only that "a violent change of power is not included in the goals of the Great East of the peoples of Russia."
Socialist Nikolai Chkheidze also recalled that the minds of the Duma Masons in 1912-1915 were more concerned with reconciling party interests and reaching compromises than discussing real plans to overthrow the emperor. However, in the fall of 1915, the situation began to change: the failures of the Russian army during this period led to the radicalization of the Supreme Council of the Great East of the peoples of Russia.
Contemporaries recalled that at this time a member of the Supreme Council, Alexander Fedorovich Kerensky, who had become a Freemason back in 1912, undertook campaign trips to the province. Organized collections of money for the needs of the coup. Nevertheless, when, in the same autumn of 1915, the already mentioned Mstislavsky suggested that the leaders of Russian Freemasonry organize an attempt on the life of the tsar, they reacted negatively to this initiative.
Mason and the last chairman of the Provisional Government, Alexander Fedorovich Kerensky. Photo by Karl Bulla.
This was followed by a decisive protest of the Ukrainian Masons, whose share in the general Masonic movement of the Russian Empire was quite large. The resolution of the All-Russian Congress of Masonic Lodges in 1916 did not include conspiratorial plans either.
The idea of a coup d'état, though captured the minds of the leaders of Russian Freemasonry, but only for a while. By 1916, the center of the conspiracy had shifted to the opposition group of General Alexander Krymov and the leader of the Octobrist Party, Alexander Guchkov. There is no convincing evidence that they were Freemasons.
On an individual basis (that is, not on behalf of the Masonic organization) Guchkov was supported by Nikolai Nekrasov, an ardent supporter of the ideas of the coup. In April 1917, they planned to organize the seizure of the tsarist train in order to force Nicholas II to abdicate in favor of his son. However, the February Revolution prevented their plans from being realized.
Immediately after the revolution, the Provisional Committee of the State Duma was formed, on the basis of which the Provisional Government was formed a little later. Among its members there were only three Freemasons - Alexander Kerensky, Nikolai Nekrasov and Alexander Konovalov - who tried (and sometimes successfully) to appoint their brothers to administrative posts.
Obviously, the February Revolution was not the result of an organized Masonic conspiracy. Many members of Masonic lodges advocated the idea of a coup d'état and even discussed it with non-Masons, but this did not imply a centralized Masonic conspiracy.
However, even if we imagine that the events of February 1917 were really planned by a “secret Masonic center”, we are faced with an ordinary example of the overthrow of the government by a conspiratorial underground group of revolutionaries who call themselves Masons.